In every branch or various sections of literature- be it fiction, drama, biography, poetry, drama, novels, short stories, literary criticism, Indian literature has a tremendous variety to offer. Nearly every major Indian language has a rich tradition of literature. Tales from the Puranas, the Jatakas and the Panchatantra folk tales, fairy tales and ghost stories have made India a vast storehouse of literature. Non-Literary work on a variety of themes like law, health, astronomy, grammar, administration also form a part of the Indian literary heritage. India has given birth to it’s own distinct set of litterateurs and literature.
The literary tradition in India is primarily oral literature in vernacular languages. This is passed on from generation to generation without manuscript generally sung or recited. It was in the 16th century that an extensive written literature appeared. The reason for this changes were the literary predominance of Sanskrit and the emergence of Hindu pietistic movements that sought to reach the people in their spoken languages. The earlier forms of Indian literature was religious. They include the Vedas, the Brahmanas, the Aryankas, the Upanishads, the Sanskrit Epics- Ramayana and Mahabharatha, the Brahmashastras, the mythological writings known as Puranas. The literature of this period are in Sanskrit Pali Prakrit.
Sanskrit literature has a special place in our civilization. It extended from about 1400 BC to AD 1200 and reached its height in the period from the 1st to the 7th centuries AD. The two major epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha, Abhigyanashakuntalam, Meghadutam by Kalidasa, are the best examples. Later in the 14th century, Kabir Das, Surdas and Tulasidas, a poet of the common people were popular. Tulasidas’s ‘Rama-charita-manas’ (1575) is considered as an immortal classic by all Hindus.
It is interesting to note that Tamil Literature is supposed to be the least sanskritised among all Indian languages because, it had a classical tradition of its own. Urdu and Sindhi are other exceptions, having arisen out of an Islamic background. Mirza Ghalib’s couplets, written around mid-19th century, Ghazals written by Amir Khusro etc are popular even today.
The era of Indian modern literature began in the late nineteenth century. With the establishment of vernacular schools and the importation of the printing press, a great impetus was given to popular prose, with Bengali writers perhaps taking the lead. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya, Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand etc rank among the world’s best literary figures. Tagore’s own translation of ‘Gitanjali’ into English brought him international fame when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913. His ‘Gora’ is considered to be a very outstanding novel in Indian literature .
Postage stamps, Special covers from India related to writers and poets.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Harivansh Rai Bachchan
Kabir
Kamala Das ( Madhavikutti) Malayalam writer & poets
Nirad C. Chaudhuri
Subramanya Bharathi
Postage stamps, Special covers from other countries related to writers and poets.
Mark Twain – American author and humorists.
Leo Tolstoy -Russian writer and religious thinker.
Anton Chekhov-Russian dramatist and author.
Maxim Gorky – Russian writer, playwright and political activist.
George Bernard Shaw on stamps and Biography
Dante Alighieri – Italian Poet and Philosopher
Rudyard Kipling-English poet and short story writer
William Blake-Poet and Painter
Lord Byron- British Romantic poet
Victor Hugo